


A Good Day

by KatyObsesses



Series: One More New Direction [2]
Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Broadway, Broadway Star Blaine Anderson, Broadway Star Kurt Hummel, Kinda, M/M, Major canon divergence, One More New Direction 'Verse, again kinda, coffee shop AU, dear evan hansen - Freeform, meet cute, they've already met
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-04
Updated: 2020-08-04
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:14:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25706470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatyObsesses/pseuds/KatyObsesses
Summary: December 2017Today’s going to be a good day for Kurt Hummel, and here’s why;Today is Kurt’s first day of rehearsals for a role he only thought he could dream about. That should be reason enough to classify the day as ‘Good’.But then he bumps into an old familiar face, and an old familiar crush reinstates itself.(Part of a larger series, but can be read on it’s own without confusion)
Relationships: Blaine Anderson/Kurt Hummel, Past Blaine Anderson/Sebastian Smythe - Relationship
Series: One More New Direction [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864348
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	A Good Day

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is part of a larger Glee rewrite series I have in the works but I couldn’t sit on it for long (I literally finished the draft this morning at 4am and spent the past hour proof reading it) because I love it too much and I don’t even know if I’ll ever get around to posting the rest of the series (I’ve been planning and writing it since before lockdown just for fun)
> 
> If you want a quick backstory to this story (I don’t think you really need it) see the end notes.
> 
> Enjoy!

**December 2017**

Kurt was finally going to play the lead in a Broadway show, a well-known, new, and well-loved Broadway show. He’d dreamt about this since he first learned about Broadway, watching the Tonys with his Mom. 

Today was going to be a _good day_ because today was Kurt’s first rehearsal for Dear Evan Hansen.

Kurt had given up on being the lead in a musical ages ago. He’d always assumed he’d be in the chorus forever, maybe get a role as a gay best friend with one line in a throw away song. Despite finishing college with a first class degree in Musical Theatre, most casting directors couldn’t seem to see past Kurt’s voice, looks, or presentation. They judged him on sight, told him his voice was beautiful, and then gave him a spot in the chorus. He’d just finished a year long _paid_ internship at Vogue.com (actually using his Fashion Studies Minor) when the open-call casting for Dear Evan Hansen was announced.

The directors of the show wanted fresh faces, people younger and less experienced who could really bring Evan Hansen to life. His best friend, Erin, was a huge fan of the show and had begged him to audition. So he auditioned, and somehow, out of hundreds of other auditionees, he’d gotten the part.

So here he was staring up at the Music Box Theatre with awe. The theatre was almost 100 years old and was honestly one of Kurt’s favourite theatres if he was basing it off of aesthetic. It was beautiful, and it was going to be his home away from home for the next year or so.

He was so distracted by the theatre’s facade, the posters that graced it where his name would soon be, that he didn’t notice the guy who was coming out of the stage entrance, rummaging in his bag, and not looking where he was going.

They collided in the doorway, both walking back a few steps.

The guy looked familiar, but Kurt couldn’t put his finger on why, exactly.

“I am so sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going.” He apologised head still down, his voice had a familiar midwest twang to it. When he finally lifted his head to look at the person he’d walked into his face morphed into one of confused recognition.

“Kurt?” The guy asked and Kurt startled, he racked his brain for a second. The guy in front of him had long and wild curly hair that seemed to follow the tilt of his head, and Kurt couldn’t really take his eyes off of it. He couldn’t think of a single person he knew with hair like that. He then looked at the guy’s face and blinked in confusion. He recognised that face, but the face and the hair in combination was throwing him for a loop.

“Blaine?” He asked, his voice full of uncertainty and the guy, Blaine, laughed, nodding. His hair followed the movement.

“It’s so good to see you!” Blaine enthused, immediately going in for a brief hug. “What are you doing here?” He asked as he pulled away.

“Rehearsal.” Kurt said simply, still slightly in shock at seeing his high-school, rival show choir, co-worker crush in front of him, and looking so… different. He pointed to the poster on the door. “I’m going to be the next Evan.”

“That’s amazing, Kurt.” Blaine said, genuinely. “If you’re even half as good as you were in high school, you’ll be a great Evan, and I’d wager you’re even better after, what? Five years?”

“Thanks, and yeah, god, it’s been at least that long, hasn’t it?” Kurt chuckled, his shock retreating. “What are you doing here?” He repeated Blaine’s question.

“Rehearsal,” Blaine parroted, then copied Kurt by pointing at the poster on the door. “I’m going to be the next Conner.”

“No way.” Kurt said, huffing out a small laugh. Blaine just nodded, smiling.

“I was just going to grab coffee for everyone before rehearsal.” Blaine said, gesturing to a Starbucks sign just to the right of the theatre, “Starbucks coffee is never as good as the Lima Bean coffee, but I can grab you one if you want? Grande Nonfat Mocha?”

“You remember my coffee order?” Kurt asked, surprised Blaine had remembered it all these years.

“Of course I do.” Blaine said simply, like it was the most normal thing in the world. “We worked together for a whole summer, Kurt, you would make yourself a coffee at the beginning and end of every shift. I bet you still remember mine.” He challenged.

“You were boring and usually went for a medium drip.” Kurt said instantly, surprising himself and Blaine, who barked out a short laugh.

“I’ll have you know that I sometimes added cinnamon.” Blaine teased, “I’ll let you get settled in while I get the _insane_ amount of coffee I just promised everyone in my starstruck haze. See you in a bit.”

“See you.” Kurt responded as Blaine walked away, a cheery spring in his step that made his curls bounce.

 _What a small world_ , he thought as he psyched himself up before entering the theatre.

He’d stood outside this stage door before, when the show had first opened, and waited with Rachel and Erin, squashed against the barriers, for Ben Platt to sign their Playbills. Now here he was about to enter the very same doors he’d seen one of his idols step out of.

Here he was about to make his dream come true.

God, why was he shaking?

He took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and then let it out before he finally opened the door and stepped inside.

\-----

The rehearsal was amazing. They showed him and Blaine around the set, introduced them to all the cast and crew, had them shadow the current Evan and Conner (Noah Galvin and Mike freaking Faist) as they ran through the show. They had them act opposite each other and were impressed by how well they both already knew the script, songs, and general blocking of the show. Kurt felt on the cusp of overwhelmed the entire day. It was surreal to be meeting so many people he looked up to, not only meeting them but working alongside them.

“That was…” Kurt began as he and Blaine left the theatre later that day. He buried his face in his scarf, unable to continue his thought.

“Yeah.” Blaine sighed, smiling.

His bright grin hadn’t left his face all day, except for when he was acting. And boy, could Blaine Anderson _act_. One second there’d be Blaine - an excitable puppy of a person bouncing on the balls of his feet and taking in everything he could see - and the next there was Conner - a suicidal teen, a depressed and snarky ghost, a figment of Evan’s imagination. Kurt had had to fight to keep his eyes off of him, which had been a bit of a problem, what with them mostly acting off of one another.

It had been both fun and draining to get into the headspace of Evan. It was one he’d had some experience in - a depressed and anxious teen who felt isolated by his peers. However, playing the part alongside Blaine, a familiar face and a connection to his own high-school years, seemed to help him stay just on the precipice of emotion. He helped to ground him in reality and remember that he _wasn’t_ Evan, that he may have been in that state of mind before, but he’d been helped out of it by Glee Club and all the friends he’d made because of it.

That was the reason he wanted to play Evan in the first place.

He wanted, desperately, to show other kids like him out there that they are not alone, that nobody’s really alone, that there are people going through similar experiences out there in the world. Some of those kids wouldn’t be as lucky as him to have a Show Choir full of misfits to join, but they might stumble across the soundtrack to Dear Evan Hansen, or read about it in an article, or even stumble across a bootleg on YouTube. 

He took a deep breath of the cold New York air and smiled into his scarf.

He was a Broadway actor.

He was rehearsing to play the lead in a Broadway show that had won Best Musical at last year’s Tonys.

Despite the somewhat exhausting day, Kurt was almost certain he was actually dreaming.

“You okay?” He startled as Blaine spoke, forgetting for a moment that he wasn’t alone. Looking at his surroundings he realised they’d walked the short distance to Times Square, surrounded on all sides by bundled up tourists. 

“Yeah, just…” Kurt waved a hand in front of him, unable to quantify his emotions with a word. “I’m going to be on _Broadway,_ not off-broadway, but actually on _Broadway._ Not as a member of the ensemble but as the lead. I still can’t really believe it. This time last year I was outside the stage door waiting for the cast to sign my playbill, and today I was… I was _chatting_ with them. We made small talk with _Mike Faist_ about growing up in Ohio.”

“I know, it was…” Blaine trailed off too, looking up at the adverts and lights of Times Square. “It was amazing,”

His eyes shined as bright as his smile and Kurt felt his heart constrict in his chest. He thought he’d grown out of his crush on Blaine, but seeing him now, happy and open in a way he’d never seen him in high-school, the crush was back in full force. 

“So,” Kurt started, walking towards the TKTS stairs and sitting. “What have I missed in the last five years?”

They chatted about their years apart for over an hour, huddled together for warmth as the world kept going around them. It was like they’d never grown apart when Kurt moved to New York.

Blaine had gone to the University of Michigan instead of a New York College like he’d originally planned. Majoring in Musical Theatre with a minor in Business to placate his dad. He moved to New York right after graduating in May last year, auditioned around while working as a barista, and then got the role of Conner. He had stayed with Sebastian until part way through his first year at College, breaking up when the long distance got too difficult to manage.

“I dated a bit, but no-one really stuck.” Blaine said, “No-one was ‘The One’.” Blaine paused, “What about you? You were dating Sam when I last saw you.”

Kurt gave a loud and slightly startled laugh that made Blaine look at him with confusion.

“Sorry, it’s not even that funny.” Kurt said, wiping his eyes, “I kind of just forgot I ever dated Sam, he’s been with Erin for so long. We broke up not long after I moved to New York, he _finally_ realised his feelings for Erin and felt wrong stringing me along or whatever, Erin took a while to realise her feelings for him though. They’re both my roommates, actually, and Rachel too, though more often than not she’s over at Jesse’s.” Kurt rubbed his hands together as they started going numb from the cold. “I had a handful of boyfriends in college. Do you remember Chandler?”

Blaine nodded.

“The guy who used to tell you terrible pick up lines?”

Kurt nodded.

“We bumped into each other after Sam and I broke up and dated for a bit, but he liked clubbing too much. We still hang out on occasion though. Then there was Adam, who’s back in England working on the West End, and Elliott, who I was in a band with for a bit before I finished College. I’m still friends with them too, actually. But no, no one really stuck romantically for me, either.”

“I have to say that’s surprising to me, Kurt. You’re a catch.” Kurt felt himself flush under the praise and hoped Blaine would assume it was from the cold.

“Thanks, so are you.” Kurt replied in kind and the two shared a smile. Blaine’s phone buzzed and rang loudly in his pocket, blasting an old Katy Perry song that immediately transported Kurt back to slow days at the Lima Bean when he and Blaine would rotate between Katy Perry and Lady Gaga songs for most of their shift.

Blaine fished his phone from his pocket, eyes widening as he looked at the screen.

“Wow, is that the time?” He asked genuinely surprised, then looked at Kurt apologetically, “My roommate’s probably calling to make sure I haven’t died getting back from rehearsal.” He laughed good naturedly and let the phone go to voicemail before he typed a quick text back.

Kurt fished his own phone from his pocket.

“How on earth is it 7pm already?” Kurt laughed, “My roommates are probably wondering where I am too.”

Blaine held out his phone, a new contact page open for Kurt to add his number.

“I think I lost your number at some point in the last five years, and if we’re going to be cast-mates…” Kurt smiled and took the phone, inputting his number before handing it back.

Blaine smiled back and quickly shot Kurt a text. “...and now you have mine.”

Kurt didn’t want to leave. There was something about talking to Blaine again that made him feel like that bright-eyed 19-year-old, ready for a new life in the big apple.

“I’ll see you at rehearsals.” Blaine said after a comfortable few seconds of silence, taking the initiative to stand and leave.

Kurt stood too and, with little thought, wrapped Blaine in a tight hug.

“See you at rehearsals.” He promised as he pulled away, he could have sworn that Blaine’s cheeks were redder than they’d been before the hug. Blaine smiled bashfully, hesitated for a second, and then set off in the opposite direction to where Kurt needed to head, shooting Kurt a quick wave goodbye.

Kurt stood watching him for a few seconds, he was all but skipping out of Times Square.

Kurt’s phone started ringing then, and for a split second he hoped it was Blaine.

It wasn’t.

“Hi Rachel.” Kurt said as he answered, his disappointment on full display, not that she seemed to notice. He turned away from where Blaine had now disappeared. Rachel was rambling on in his ear, asking him questions but then answering them herself, satisfied with his hummed answers as he distractedly walked to 49th Street station so he could get back to Bushwick.

Today had been a good day.

**Author's Note:**

> Quick Backstory:
> 
> In this universe Kurt never transferred to Dalton. In this ‘verse he had someone else to go to for the Karofsky problem and, as a result, he didn’t really get that close to Blaine, (though they still met when he spied on the Warblers and he still had a crush on him the size of Texas)
> 
> The Warblers and the New Directions are show choir rivals, not because they poach one of the members but simply because they tied at the 2010 Sectionals (S2) (In that sectionals Kurt got his promised solo and imo Blaine developed a huge crush on _him_ that he didn’t know how to handle)
> 
> Blaine, obviously, didn’t transfer to McKinley and ultimately started dating Sebastian ~ S3 timeline (because poor Blaine just wants love and didn’t see the signs of Sebastian being a right arse) (in my brain Blaine and Sebastian are one of those on again off again couples that you know shouldn’t ever be on again, but neither listen to you when you tell them)
> 
> Lots of stuff that happened in the show didn’t happen in this ‘verse (some sadly, like the amazing Sebastian/Santana Micheal Duet, and some happily, like the bastardization of Season 2 Blaine’s character)
> 
>  **EDITED 18/09/20:** Originally in this fic Kurt had dated Chandler at the end of his Senior year, after changing my notes around he was now dating Sam at the end of his senior year. <3
> 
> Kurt and Blaine work together at The Lima Bean during the summer after Kurt’s senior year. (Blaine, idk, saw Kurt worked there and, because of his massive crush, applied for the open position despite really not needing money)
> 
> Kurt doesn’t go to NYADA (But does get in! Because his audition is AMAZING) and instead studies at **EDITED 18/09/20** Marymount Manhatten majoring in Musical Theatre and minoring in Fashion Studies (Can you tell I researched way too much for this ‘verse? Because I did, probably more than I researched my dissertation.)
> 
> Kurt lives with Rachel, Erin (my lovely OC who is the reason for this whole ‘Verse) and Sam (Spoilers: He’s dating Erin)
> 
> I can’t really think of any other backstory I know that you need to know to enjoy this fic. So… I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know if there are any mistakes!
> 
>  **EDIT 18/09/20** I have recently also started writing the fic where they work in the Lima Bean together so be on the look out for that!
> 
> (Also apologies to the amazing Taylor Trensch and Alex Boniello for kicking you out of the DEH cast in this universe. Know I love you both as Evan and Conner. And Alex, in my brain you go on to play Conner when Blaine leaves anyway.)


End file.
